XVIII 



ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE VAKIETIES 

 OF THE HUMAN SPECIES 1 



ON the occasion of the Anniversary Meeting of the Institute 

 last year I endeavoured to sum up in a few words the prin- 

 cipal aims and scope of the science of Anthropology as now 

 understood. 



I then gave reasons for my belief that the discrimination 

 and description of the characteristics of the various races of 

 men is one of, if not the most practically important of the 

 different branches into which the whole of the great subject 

 is divided. It was also stated that although other characters, 

 such as those derived from language, social customs, traditions, 

 religious beliefs, and from intellectual and moral attributes, 

 were by no means to be neglected, structural or anatomical 

 characters are those upon which in the end most reliance 

 must be placed in discriminating races. 



I propose now to give a brief summary of the results 

 attained up to the present time by the study of the racial 

 characters of the human species, and to show what progress 

 has been made towards arriving at a natural classification of 

 the varieties into which the species may be divided. 



The most ordinary observation is sufficient to demonstrate 

 the fact that certain groups of men are strongly marked from 

 others by definite characters common to all members of the 

 group, and transmitted regularly to their descendants by the 

 laws of inheritance. The Chinaman and the Negro, the 

 native of Patagonia and the Andaman Islander, are as distinct 



1 Address delivered at the Anniversary Meeting of the Anthropological 

 Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 27th January 1885. 



